CO129-569-1 New Territories Unemployed Seamen's Association- petition asking for preference to be given to members when... 21-11-1938 - 27-1-1939 — Page 16

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represents, to assist seamen registered with them to

obtain such certificates, particularly as the

certificates came to be much sought after by persons who

hoped to be able to avoid the Malayan immigration

restrictions by using them as a kind of passport. The

concluding words of the petition seem to indicate that

this as much as employment on board ships is in the

writer's mind.

3.

The great proportion of the business of

recruiting seamen of Chinese race for the shipping

Companies is in the hands of a large firm of compradores

and stevedores, styled Wang Kee, and it is known that

small associations, such as that which submitted the

present petition, have encountered severe competition in

their efforts to obtain employment for their own men and

fees for such services. Another similar petition,

received in October, 1937, from a small association of

this nature, actually stated that the object of the

petitioners was to force the Wang Kee firm to reduce

its commission for finding employment by obtaining the

backing of Government for their association. The

policy adopted by this Government, however, has been not

to lend its support to any particular recruiting agency,

since it could not see any justification for exerting

pressure on shipping companies to engage seamen through

other than their accustomed agencies. These enrol also

seamen who are natives of the New Territories, though it is a regrettable fact that some of the shipping companies

do not look with favour on the New Territories seamen,

on the grounds that these are not so amenable to

discipline as the less enlightened natives of Chinese

territory.